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Salary Cuts for 14 Percent of Wage Earners

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Salary Cuts for 14 Percent of Wage Earners

January 14, 2009 11:59Updated: January 30, 2014 20:16

According to a new poll undertaken by Capacent Gallup for the Confederation of Labor (ASÍ), 14 percent of participants have been subject to a salary cut and seven percent to reduced working hours since October 2008.

President of ASÍ Gylfi Arnbjörnsson told Morgunbladid that many interesting conclusions can be drawn from this poll, including that the percentage of wage earners who have suffered a direct salary cut is lower than expected.

It appears as if such practices are more common in the capital region than in other regions in Iceland and that more men than women have to live with reduced salaries.

According to the poll, 85 percent of those who are registered as unemployed lost their jobs after the economic collapse in the beginning of October, 2008. Their number is now approaching 11,000.

Among participants who are employed, 24.2 percent say that they fear they might lose their jobs, most of whom are men living in the capital region.

“It underlines the seriousness of the situation that a quarter of Icelandic residents go to sleep at night worrying about their jobs,” Arnbjörnsson said.

A similar poll was undertaken in many European countries as well. “Icelanders, who used to be the most optimistic among nations, have now become the European nation who is most pessimistic about the future,” Arnbjörnsson added.

“It was revealed that people’s concern about unemployment is worst here compared to all other [participating] European nations,” Arnbjörnsson emphasized.

Iceland's portion of the study was based on polling data from 1,500 individuals, 54.3 percent of whom participated in the poll.